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Langston Hughes
James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1902 – May 22, 1967) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form called jazz poetry. Hughes is best known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance. He famously wrote about the period that "the negro was in vogue", which was later paraphrased as "when Harlem was in vogue". Tossup Questions # The narrator of one of this man's poems declares that "she's still climbin'" although life "ain't been no crystal stair." In another poem, this poet writes that "he is the darker brother" but will "eat well, and grow strong." This poet of "Mother to Son" and "I, Too, Sing America" describes hearing a man sing "'Ain't got nobody in this world'" before he "stopped playing and went to bed" in a work that titles his collection The Weary Blues. In another poem, this man states that he "bathed in the Euphrates" and that "his soul has grown deep like" the title bodies of water. For 10 points, name this poet of the Harlem Renaissance who wrote "The Negro Speaks of Rivers." # In one poem, this author asks, "can you love a monster of frightening name?" before advising the reader to kill the title creature to "let his soul run wild." This man penned "Genius Child" and discussed a woman who contrasts her life with a "crystal stair" in "Mother to Son." He wondered whether a certain thing crusts and sugars over "like a syrupy sweet" or whether it explodes. Though he declared that "I, too, sing America," he also speculated that some hopes "dry up like a raisin in the sun." For 10 points, identify this poet whose "soul has grown deep like the rivers," who wrote about "a dream deferred" in "Harlem." # This author asserted that "the steel of freedom does not stain" in a poem containing three stanzas of responses to the questions "Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark? And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?" A long work by this poet both begins and ends with the couplet "Good morning, daddy! Ain't you heard?"; that book contains such sections as "Early Bright", "Dig and Be Dug", and "Vice Versa to Bach". This author of (*) "Let America Be America Again" described an instructor as "a part of me, as I am a part of you" in a poem about an assignment to "let that page come out of you", his "Theme for English B". His most famous poem asks if a certain entity "sags / like a heavy load" and wonders if it dries up "like a raisin in the sun". For 10 points, name this poet whose Montage of a Dream Deferred contains "Harlem". # In a prose work, this author described how "the tom-tom cries and the tom-tom laughs" and noted "We build our temples for tomorrow". One of his poems describes a time when "the stars went out and so did the moon". His poem "Hard Luck" provided the title of his collection Fine Clothes to the Jew, which was published two years after his "discovery" by Vachel (*) Lindsay. He described a man who "slept like a rock or a man that's dead" after playing the piano in a club on Lenox Avenue in one poem, while in another, the speaker declares "I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young. I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep". For 10 points, name this Harlem Renaissance poet who wrote "The Weary Blues" and "The Negro Speaks of Rivers". # This poet commented on a literary assignment in "Theme for English B." Another of his poems asks if "a dream deferred" "dries up like a raisin in the sun." He wrote about the Euphrates, Congo, and Nile in "The Negro Speaks of Rivers." In his most famous poem, he mentions the "droning" of "a drowsy syncopated tune." For 10 points, name this African-American poet of the Harlem Renaissance who wrote "The Weary Blues."